I Will Be Remembering

UPDATE** After I posted this, it occurred to me that I may have left the wrong impression.  I won't be walking the march all by myself.  Danny Dearest will be my side for every single step.  He may even have to push, pull, and drag me to the finish line.

When I ran my first half-marathon back in December, several people asked me what my next goal would be.  I toyed with the idea of running the El Paso half-marathon the first Sunday in February but then Danny Dearest came up an alternate plan.

The Bataan Memorial Death March.

In case you didn't quite get that, that was the Bataan Memorial Death March.  

The point of this march is to experience, in a small way, what the soldiers felt on their long, forced trek in the Philippines during World War II. 

That's a march across the desert for 26.2 miles.  Some people will, of course, run the march.  I won't be running. Some people (mostly military types) will run  it while wearing full packs.  I won't be doing that either.  I will be walking and trying not to die...or throw up.

 But the point of this march is to remember the veterans who lived through the original march.

And I will be remembering on March 25, 2012.

You Don't Look a Day Over 39

Today the state on New Mexico is 100 years old.  At 58 years of age I have been alive over half the time New Mexico has been a state.


As Danny Dearest said in his Facebook status yesterday, we have lived in Fair New Mexico one-third of the time it has been a state. All these numbers comparing me to the state of New Mexico are making me feel, well, a little old.

 This is the flag of New Mexico.  I know from experience that it is much easier for elementary students to draw than that whole two men shaking hands thing that Kentucky has going on. While I think the flag of my home state of Kentucky is very inspiring, it is difficult for your average fourth grade to draw.  I know.  From experience.

Danny Dearest and I consider New Mexico to be our home.  We have grown to love the mild winters and brutally hot summers.  We love the Organ Mountains that are, quite literally, in our backyard.  We love that we can get 3 inches of snow one day and it be melted and gone the next.  We love the southwest culture and the wonderful people we have met and grown to love.  We love Hatch chili and the Mexican food it graces.

So, in honor of the birthday of our adopted home, I present singing...corgis!

Happy 100th birthday New Mexico.  You don't look a day over 39.

There's Treasure in That There Van

Well, who knew?

Apparently after my post yesterday about Danny Dearest loosing the catalytic converter on his twenty year old minivan, I had some comments that suggest that the roving band of thieves use these for salvage instead of reuse.

That restores some of my confidence in the intelligence level of gangs.

It seems that there is gold and platinum hiding in ye old catalytic converter.  That means that the residue metals lurking in that catalytic converter is worth more that the whole van.

Ummm....Mommy needs a new ring.
  

And I Thought I Knew Gangs

So when I think of gangs this is what comes to my mind...

But apparently in the LC (Las Cruces for those of you east of the Mississippi) there is another type of gang.  This gang doesn't traffic in drugs.  It's not into drive-by shootings.  It isn't into stealing cars...well not the entire car.

You see, Danny Dearest parks his car in the Lowe's parking lot to meet his vanpool for work.  He has done this for months without incident.  Until yesterday.

When he started up the old van it made a very load noise.  He drove it home and checked under it to discover his muffler was missing.  He assumed he had lost it back at the Lowe's parking lot.  He returned and found nothing.  But he stopped on his way home to check on getting the muffler replaced.  The mechanic then told him there was a gang targeting cars and stealing the muffler and catalytic converter.  It makes perfect sense except...

Danny Dearest drives a 1992 Mazda mini van.

What kind of gang would target a twenty year old van?  

Maybe it was this gang of thieves?